Ooo, Burned

Youth is filled with all types of friends.  Some are exactly like you, and some aren’t.  So when I picked my best friend to come to the 2004 Warped Tour with me, it was no surprise that he wasn’t particularly interested in all of the bands.  Being the friend he was, however, he was obliged to come.  After driving three hours to get to Atlanta we finally arrived and got into the venue.  I tried, nearly to no avail, to find a band that my buddy would enjoy as much as I would. 

Finally, we came to Bowling for Soup, a band that, to my surprise, my death metal listening friend actually enjoyed.  They played a whole set in the scorching heat with no shield from the natural elements, and yet they didn’t seem phased.  My friend however, wasn’t so lucky.

Within twenty minutes of leaving the area we had just watched Bowling for Soup at, he was flushed the most crimson color of red that I’ve seen to this day.  It had turned out that he tended to get sun poisoning, rather easily.  He had to sit by the stage for the next two acts, and then eventually had to retreat back to the car.  Upon returning to our home town, he missed the next three days of school due to his sun poisoning. 

I hated that my friend went through all of that just so I’d have company at a concert that he wasn’t that interested in.  As years went by though, we tended to pretty much follow the example he’d set that nothing is too big of a favor for a friend.  That’s why a single song we heard that day, Friends of Mine, will always remind me of the friends and stories that you can never forget from your youth.